Last November we started our Istanbul School Librarians' Book Chat. We met in a cafe near one of our colleague's schools and we all brought three books to chat about. Three books from our collections that we had read.
The disturbing reality about many teachers is that while they may be readers for their own enjoyment they do not read children's literature (Cremin, 2010, p.12). As a result of this research into teacher's reading habit the "Teachers as Readers' project was set up in the UK (Cremin, 2010, p.13). I know my colleagues and I do read children's literature but we wanted to create our own reader's advisory so we can hear about the books being read by the group and expand our knowledge through discussion.
So far we have had three meetings. After each meeting the people involved post their books to the group's Good Reads bookshelf. That way we keep a record of the books discussed so all members of our Network can see what we are reading and recommending.
Last week we had several snow days as the Governor of Istanbul closed schools during a snow storm. Our book chat went onto Google Hangouts. Instead of going to a cafe we went to the Internet and recorded our book chat. The chat is shown below.
So far we are all seeing the value of this addition to our reading of children's literature.
Cremin, T. (2010). Motivating children to read through literature. In J. Fletcher, F. Parkhill & G. T. Gillon (Eds.), Motivating literacy learners in today's world, (pp. 11-21). Wellington, N.Z.: NZCER Press.